Maybe the fourth time is a charm for Peter. He seems to be increasingly bitter in his writings about the school board after losing time and time again.

I would really like to understand his statement about the "looting of the public school system for private profit." I wonder what in the world he is talking about. I guess putting more money towards teaching children is a bad thing in Mr. Downs world?

more moeny toward teaching children? ha!

tell that to my kid, whose teacher is too tired to even put any effort in to teaching, whose classroom relies on photocopies of the few textbooks they got, who faces bullying every f'in day at school.

it's so clear that education polcy in the city is being made & discussed by people who never had to go to public school. (did peter even go to slps?) the big players are not people who lost blood, sweat and tears at slps. we need a district run by people who have experience in it, and with being poor. i'm not talking about the teachers' union, either -- i'm talkinga bout parents and students who have had to live with over fifty years of substandard education brought to them by many different school boards who pretend to be different but continue to ruin the system.

James says
"we need a district run by people who have experience in it"
and then says there has been
"over fifty years of substandard education"

What? I don't get it. I centainly don't want the same people that brought us over fifty years of substandard education to run the district. And if the teacher is too tired to teach, then they need to move on. It has to take a special breed of teacher to succeed in any urban school district. Those who can't do it need to go.

Downs would have a better chance in 2007. But if you're the type to run every time, you surely don't sit out any chance. But then, you start looking like perpetual-candidate Bill Haas, diminishing even your chances in further-out contests.

If the powers that be (black and white) really cared about the children, they wouldn't let sham investigations stand for real justice. If you want to formulate an opinion of the overall moral compass of the Saint Louis Public Schools, then look no further than the exoneration of Floyd Irons. These problems won't cure themselves.
I think they should bring a firm in from out of town or even use UMSL and SLU to conduct a non-partisan, uncorrupted study. Pay them a flat fee and interview a sampling of the parents, students, and teachers. Their goal would be to put together a profile of the best possible qualities for school board leadership and direction. You then allow them to posit fifteen names for submission into a general election by the residents of the City of Saint Louis for their NEW school board. Just because you have a big title in another industry, does not necessarily give you a golden ticket to sit on the school board. That philosophy works for corporate boards because they pay them with the hopes of having the same group mindedness! They want yes people!
Our school board on the other hand should be composed of individuals that want to challenge inefficiency, dishonesty, and troubling events. For example, why not comprise the board of a parent from the SLPS, an educational scholar, ONE politician, a law enforcement officer, a tenured principal, a community leader, a civic leader, etc.? Make sure you can only sit for three years and only put your hat in if elected once every ten years. Get people who aren't intimately involved out of the process!
The new board would then hire the superintendent for the school system. A leader that wants to change the climate of mediocrity, establish a realistic baseline dialogue with public school parents, create educational warehouses of excellence, and create realistic benchmarks for tenured teachers.
We need to promote grade school excellence. We should throw every dollar we have at foundational learning. Our high schools are bad because we have immature and sometimes uneducated parents raising children who weren't given the skills to be effective in high school in the first place. Grade schools will fix the high schools!
We need to get rid of the apethetic and ineffective teachers and create opportunities for emerging young teachers. A new body means nothing if your ticker's bad..... A new school means nothing if your faculty and students have malignant educational goals and objectives.

STL State of Mind:

Your outcomes from your Ideal Board is exactly what the current board headed by Darnetta Clinkscale and run by Creg Williams is doing.

Your words:
"The new board would then hire the superintendent for the school system. A leader that wants to change the climate of mediocrity, establish a realistic baseline dialogue with public school parents, create educational warehouses of excellence, and create realistic benchmarks for tenured teachers.
We need to promote grade school excellence. We should throw every dollar we have at foundational learning. Our high schools are bad because we have immature and sometimes uneducated parents raising children who weren't given the skills to be effective in high school in the first place. Grade schools will fix the high schools!"

=Exactly Their Actions

Aside from his rantings with the School Watch, at least he would be the only School Board member with children who actually attend the city schools.

I don't know where he stands on placing curses on the mayor, but I don't think he'll threaten to kill himself if he loses the race.

I' like to know what school Down's kids are at.

To SC Hoosier,
Actually Ron Jackson has a child attending Metro high, so parents are represented on the board now. However, Veronica O'Brian sends her children to Clayton.

Coincidentally, Peter Downs had his children in private school right until he decided to run for school board. The first time, that is. As far as I know they are still there.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Downs for a series of profiles of the board candidates the ACC put together.

At that time Mr. Downs told me he had one daughter who graduated from the public school system and two more who were still in the SLPS. He didn't say when they enrolled.

Mr. Downs expressed frustration about the money spent on outside consultants at the time but he may now be referring to the outsourcing of local district jobs such as the custodial and property maintenance jobs to private firms.

I believe this would be his third time running, the first in 2003, the second in 2005 and now. I may have missed one, but those are the only two previous runs I can reference.

I was wrong about the fourth time running, it is only his third time running for the position.

If Mr. Downs "may now be referring to the outsourcing of local district jobs such as the custodial and property maintenance jobs to private firms" when he says: "stop the looting of the public school system for private profit." I suppose he is proposing to take some of the books and supplies the district bought this year for all the students so he can pay for rehiring those folks.

That's great Peter, where are his priorities, the Kids, or the AFT 420 and SEIU and IOUE???

Who comes First? What are these schools really about, creating jobs or creating educated children?

"The Southsider apparently knows very little about Peter Downs or St. Louis public schools. His statement about Downs' children, for example, is completely false. The facts, which have all been publicized before, are that his oldest daughter attended Euclid Montessori, Mullanphy, Compton-Drew, and Central, from which she graduated. Another daughter is at Shaw, and started there in kindergarten. The third daughter is at Dewey, and she started there in prekindergarten. If the "Southsider" is going to continue to make things up, perhaps he should stick to things that aren't so easily checked."

The Southsider is hardly interested in facts or the children. He's just a pitbull who enjoys attacking and tearing others down. Read anything he writes, and you readily see he is only interested in hearing himself speak. If he cared about children, he would honestly speak to the issues and not continue to defend a local kleptocracy. Produce any fact he has contributed that can be verified--an appropriate challenge.

There is a growing groundswell of parents in this District who support Peter Downs; these are parents who feel disenfranchised and disrespected by the Board. None of the parents with whom I associate and discuss these issues with even knew Ron Jackson had a child in the SLPS until we dug into the subject. He certainly hasn't billed himself as a concerned parent, more as a party to a slate in which he will vote in lockstep. To expect that he would represent the interests of parents against the Board, the Mayor, or even the teachers and staff if need be, is expecting too much. It really doesn't matter whether this Board is doing the right thing or not. They have lost the trust of the parents and community, and to repair that will require new members on the Board. It makes a huge difference to hear things you don't like from an entity you believe in as opposed to one that you don't believe at all.

At this point, I'm probably "splitting" my vote and going for Downs and Buford. But, I guess that could change.

Ron Jackson is a nice guy, but no doubt he's well-connected to the power structure. His wife Hattie was school board prez during the late 90s. Metro's an ok school - I should know, right? - but most kids can't realistically expect to go there.

We need to do something to improve the regular high schools - now! I don't know what will work, but I'm supporting Creg Williams' plan to create smaller high school programs within Roosevelt and Vashon. I am also glad to see more cuts proposed at central administration.

So far, Dr. Williams seems to have good innovative ideas for really improving the SLPS. Many teachers still are understandably concerned, and the supply issues still haven't been worked out.

Also, the sale of the warehouse is a very good thing. It did cost some jobs, unfortunately, but I don't know any way around that.

I wish they would at least include a living-wage requirement in the contract with Sodexho though. That would at least be comparable to what other large-scale public-sector entities like the City and WashU are doing.